Oathbound (The Legendborn Cycle #3)

Chapter III

III

TEN MINUTES. TEN minutes .

My eyes bounce around the terrain, seeking a hiding place, while my mind debates whether I can hide at all.

Zoelle and Elijah don’t appear to be trained for combat, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be easily outwitted or outfought. I’ve faced demons made of stone and demons made of decaying moss and fully corporeal hellfoxes. I’ve fought against a goruchel ranked higher than his elemental and animal isel brethren—and won. But if there’s one thing I know about the world of demons, it’s that they are all unpredictable chaos creatures.

As I trot, my feet crunch over leaves until I slip on a rocky patch, twisting into the fall at the last second so that I don’t break an ankle. I land in a huff, pop back to my feet. Turn to scan the ground back the way I came.

How many minutes have passed? Three? Maybe four?

And I still don’t have a plan.

The wind slices through my thin shirt and pants, whipping my curls around my face. Wherever we are, it’s bitterly cold. Colder here in November than in Chapel Hill or back home in Bentonville. The mountains, maybe? I glance up. Beneath these skeletal trees, that cold will set into my limbs quickly, making my joints too stiff to run or fight. Can’t stay here. Can’t stay put. I pick up the pace and settle into a quick jog.

What do I know? I think. And, more importantly, how can I use what I know about my opponents?

I tick off the details: The twins are cambions. They are preternaturally fast and strong. They possess fast metabolisms; they heal quick. Their senses of smell and hearing are heightened, but Erebus restricted the twins to using only their aether sense to find me. Don’t know how they’ll avoid using their other supernatural senses… unless he mesmers them, blanketing their eyes and ears. The same was done to me months ago in the forest behind the Lodge, on the night of the First Oath, when Sel temporarily took my sight.

At the thought of Sel, my chest clenches. A wisp of root slips from between my lips—deep bloodred power floating away like mist overhead. Shit. I clap a hand over my mouth as it drifts higher. A piece of me, dancing and fading into the air. Not good, I think, not good . I’m supposed to be sealing my power, not letting it loose!

I sprint away from the residual, pressing my lips tight together as I put some distance between my power and my body.

Around me, the land shifts dramatically. A hundred yards to my right, hills rise like great hulking shadows. A couple hundred to my left, the land drops off into nothing. Wherever we are, a hint of a mountain range peeks through the trees in the distance. The earth is a collection of dead and dying plants, everything dry and crisp and loud beneath my feet. In the silence, every twig echoes like a gunshot in my ears. Every gasp of breath grinds like a bone saw.

Think, Bree!

If Valec —at the thought of Valec, another lick of flame rises from my mouth. I run faster to escape it. If he were hunting me, where would I hide?

Somewhere high, so I could see him coming.

Somewhere so obvious that he might miss me.

Somewhere that would keep me from being cornered if I needed to fight.

There.

A large brown barn sits at the foot of a tall hill with a small field of grass and gravel near its entrance. I speed toward it.

There are two large doors in the front that I avoid entirely. Instead, I head toward the gently sloping hill thirty feet or so behind the barn, scrabbling to find foot- and handholds up the incline. The barn is too easy to get trapped in, but behind the barn and up the hill that overlooks it? A good spot to see the twins enter the clearing and hopefully high enough that any more leaking root floats up toward the clouds before they sense it.

I reach the top and flatten myself among tall, mostly dead switchgrass just as I hear a voice ring out, echoing against the trees and landscape.

“Brianaaaaaa. Where are youuuuuu?” Zoe. Laughter in her voice. I hear a low rumble—Elijah—then she laughs again before she speaks. “Elijah thinks you’re going to make this easy for us, but I think you might actually be clever!” A pause. “Are you clever, Briana?”

I close my eyes and focus on the root inside my chest. What did Erebus say? Seal it, so that I don’t appear to be anything other than a human girl. I’ve spent so long trying to open my furnace on purpose, but now that I’ve found out how to use it, I have no idea how to close its doors. Now that I am without the protection of the Legendborn and Mageguard, it’s like I’ve been left alone with uncontrollable weaponry. A bomb with no off button. A flamethrower with a stuck trigger.

The power that felt like freedom a day ago can just as easily cause my downfall. Blood in the water, drawing ravenous sharks.

And no one here to protect me.

Just like that, I’m back in my memory—Nick’s face at Northern, his hand outstretched, his fingertips. Nick —another flare of power leaps from my lips like an angry flame.

“Oh-ho!” Zoe calls. “What was that ?”

Shit. I squeeze my eyes shut. Stop! Don’t think of Nick. Don’t think of anyone. Don’t—

Don’t be stubborn about it, just smile and eat the cake. Alice’s words.

The smell of freshly baked cake in my memory mingles with the rubbery scent of a single birthday balloon. I grit my teeth—root rises from between them. Don’t think of Alice. If you think of Alice, you’ll think of—

As long as you’re all right, kid. Long as you’re safe. My father’s care.

My father, burying his concern when I lie to him—again—and tell him there’s no need to worry. When there are so very many reasons to worry. Pain so sharp, I gasp—and root streams from my lips.

Goddamnit.

“Briana!” Zoe again. “Girl, you’re truly god- awful at hiding! May as well be sending up fireworks! Fourth of July–ass…” Snickering laughter from both twins now.

Elijah calls to me next. “Where’d you get that red aether from anyway? Does it run out after a while? Like a rechargeable battery?”

“Do you plug yourself into the wall?” Zoe shouts.

“Did you steal it? Or bargain for it?” Elijah asks, and he sounds genuinely curious. “Wait… are you a warlock?”

“Ooh, gross, Elijah. They stink. Bree’s power smells good .”

I hold my breath, as if that will help anything, and flatten myself farther into the earth.

I reach for the mental image I once used to protect myself—the imaginary wall of steel and brick that I brought with me to Carolina. The mile-high barrier with no seams or fissures. That wall used to keep me safe from my fresh grief, used to keep my After-Bree self contained. But the wall doesn’t work here. Not anymore. Red root bursts from my mouth. I suck it back, mouth bright with it, try to swallow it down—

“There you are!” Zoe’s voice reaches me from the bottom of the hill. I don’t dare move in case she’s bluffing, trying to draw me out.

The tall grasses at my elbows bend all at once under a strong whoosh, my only warning before I feel a pair of hands underneath each elbow, lifting me up like I weigh no more than paper.

I bare my teeth as both twins grin, their hands tight on my arms.

“There she is.” Zoe’s eyes narrow, and now that I’m up close, I can see the effect of Erebus’s power on their senses. Thin layers of black smoke coat their faces, writhing and swirling in the air like masks made of aether. Beneath the layer, her eyes flash red. “Where’s that power?”

Show me that power, little girl. A demon’s threat.

A flash of a memory ricochets through my entire body. Kizia, the goruchel assassin, sent to ambush me at a Legendborn safe house. Her claws digging into the flesh of my throat. Root rises from my breath.

Even my enemies trigger this messiness, this lack of control.

Zoe chuckles. “Oh, this is gonna be good, Jah—”

I hear Zoe’s voice, but all I see is Kizia. Even with the twin cambions threatening me in the here and now, I am in the past.

I remember the uchel I fought in the woods during the first Oath. The stone creature who tumbled me around in an armored car like it was a toy. Even Selwyn, who threatened my life more than once before my lineage was revealed. I remember the Regents, who thought I was too much to live a free life, but never enough to be their king.

Even though I’ve run away from the Order, I am still the same Onceborn-raised teenage girl held at the mercy of a snarling, laughing opponent.

Still. After everything.

Three months ago, I saw a demon at a quarry when I wasn’t supposed to… and everything has been breathless and relentless from that second onward. Six months ago, my mother was still alive and I didn’t know what death looked like.

Now I know what it sounds like.

I know its smell. Its taste. The weight of it in Rhaz’s body pierced by my sword. The deep, thunderous crack of snapped bone. Now I know what my own body looks like when it is torn open. I’ve seen my inner flesh—shiny, wet, vulnerable. I understand how deeply pain can course, what it feels like when nerves scream and muscles rip. I want to sob aloud— I don’t want to know these things. But I do. I do.

And I have had enough.

Completely unaware of the vortex of grief and rage building inside me, Zoe shakes her head at her brother, face amused. “Can’t believe the King’s going to let us have a taste—”

“Shut.” My vision flashes red. “Up.”

Zoe’s eyes snap to mine. “Excuse me?”

“You want my power? Take it.” With a twin on each arm, I open my palms—and release root like a volcano beneath their chins.

Flames engulf their heads in a satisfying whoosh.

They scream and release me, stumbling back. With their attention on their pain, I take the advantage.

I drive into Elijah’s chest with my shoulder, grunting with the effort. He makes an “oomph” sound and flies up—hanging in the air—before dropping down the hill. He tumbles down and out of sight.

Zoe emits a low growl. I turn—

But she’s caught on to the fact that my hands are my greatest weapon.

In a blur of motion, she speeds out of range.

She stands twenty feet away, chest heaving, and wipes the back of her hand against a singed cheek, drawing smudged makeup across her temple like a purple gash. “So it’s like that, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s like that.” I glance down at her brother where he lies still at the base of the hill. “Hope he didn’t hit his head.”

Zoe blurs forward, coming at me with a wild, untrained swing.

I dance back, reflexes moving my body on instinct—and her clenched fist skims the air in front of my nose.

We pause again, sizing each other up.

“How fast can you heal?” I taunt. “Faster than you punch, I hope.”

“Shut up!” Zoe darts forward. She swings again—and I duck, grateful for my time under Gillian Hanover’s tutelage. Grateful even for my enemies. For Vaughn and Rhaz and every isel who taught me to move before they strike.

She stumbles over a clump of grass and soil, recovering instantly, but still—I see it.

That tumble rattled her.

I wonder if…

I dart forward, a feint. She steps away instead of running.

My guess was right. Her caution makes her slow—even on the defense.

Now every time Zoe advances, I dodge more than easily. Every time she huffs in frustration, I smirk.

My footwork is better than hers. I know it. She knows it—and it’s making her angry. Her anger makes her sloppy.

“Careful, Zoe ,” I say. “Don’t trip again. Might twist an ankle.”

She hisses but does not attack. Wary enough not to take my bait a second time.

“I’ve fought hellfoxes faster than you,” I poke. “And they were one foot in the grave as it was.”

That works.

She swings slowly, angrily. I duck under, pivot in. Hit her with a closed-fist rib shot before spinning away. Not my best work. Probably only half of my inherited strength, but it’s enough to send her staggering, hand clasped to one side.

Fear makes its first appearance on her face.

I skip backward, careful not to veer too close to the edge. Glance down to see Elijah, moaning and shifting onto his side. He’ll be up soon.

Zoe tries to rattle me. “Gonna drain you dry, baby girl.”

I snort. “Why? You don’t need aether to survive. You don’t need human pain, either. You don’t need to feed like a demon at all.”

When she grins, her fangs become visible between the deep purple of her lips. “Sure, me and Elijah don’t need to feed like full demons, but aether and messy misery sure are fun to chase.”

“So you’re just greedy.” I duck as her fist swings over my head. “Untrained, slow, and greedy. Why does Erebus even bother with you?”

Her eyes widen. “You little—”

Too easy. I take the opening I’ve been waiting for and rush her, counting on the unexpected move to catch her off guard. It works.

Sort of.

She grabs at my shoulders, tips us back, and we go tumbling down the hill. A rock jabs into my lower back, and something tears a long, angry stripe down my upper arm. We end up falling right at Elijah’s feet.

Recovered from his fall, Elijah grasps me by the collar with both hands, dragging me up to my toes, teeth bared as he lifts me. I kick out and land a blow against his shin. His grip loosens, but Zoe grabs my shirt, dragging me over to her instead. She raises me higher, grip like iron. “This game isn’t fun anymore.”

“Oh, really?” I chuckle between gasps. “I’m having a great time.”

“I could snap your neck right now.” Zoe seethes.

“Zoe!” Elijah calls. “She’s not worth it!” He glances furtively over his shoulder, scanning for Erebus, I’m sure. I don’t know where he is either, but I do know one thing about the King. One very important detail.

“You could kill me, sure,” I mutter. “But you won’t, because your sire would never allow it. You know that, and I know that.” I strain forward until our noses touch. “Don’t we, Zoelle ?”

Fury robs her of her voice. Instead of responding, she growls—then launches me backward into the sky.

I don’t even have time to brace for my collision with the heavy wooden doors—but it’s a collision that never comes. Instead of smashing into the barn, my spine smacks hard into what feels like a thick concrete wall. The air around me flashes bright green-white. My skull cracks against it too, and black spots dance across my vision.

Whatever this glowing wall is, it’s not only solid; it feels alive . My entire body is held against it, as if magnetized to its buzzing surface, for the span of a heartbeat. My mind blanks, no words, no thought—instead, I feel a deep, stomach-roiling, primordial terror. And a desperate, answering need to walk, no, run away.

Runaway—leavethisplace—neverevercomehereagain—runaway—

When the wall finally drops me, electricity zips through my torso and limbs, numbing the impact of the sharp gravel on my cheek. I land in a heap, face down, gasping and stunned at the emotions in my gut.

A strong hand pulls me half up by the back of my shirt. I’m being dragged, limbs limp at my sides, through the gravel and back toward the grass. For a disorienting, confusing moment, I feel relief. So much relief that I’m being pulled away from the barn, that my body is moving in the right direction, even if I’m not running to get there.

The hand flips me over roughly. I blink against the shining sun and bright gray winter sky, the view going watery. “What…?” I croak. “What was that?”

I don’t get an answer, but my mind conjures it up anyway. A ward? A barrier? But it felt alive. Wards and barriers don’t feel like that.

Both twins crouch over me, their faces appearing on either side overhead as they block out the sun.

It’s too familiar. I’ve been here before, at the mercy of cambions. Root rises from my body in a pale red mist.

“Ha!” Zoe smiles down at me. “No wonder the old man’s trying to train you. Every low-ranked demon in the county would come running your way if they knew how much juice you had.”

I surge upward, snarling to meet her, but my own muscles thwart the attempt, still weak from the barn’s magic. The twins each press a hand down on my shoulder until I give up and collapse.

“We caught her…,” Elijah begins, eyeing me warily. “So…”

“So we win!” Zoe’s grin is slightly feral. “We get to taste her power.”

“He said he’d consider letting us consume her,” Elijah corrects. He looks around again. “Consideration is not permission. We should wait for him.…”

“Elijahhhhh,” Zoe whines. “Stop being a demon king’s pet.”

Elijah scoffs. “I am not—”

I writhe beneath their grips. The compulsion to run away from the barn claws at the inside of my mind. As I fight against them, my root blooms, and both twins’ attention snaps back to me.

“Nah…,” she says in a rough, low voice, eyes flaring red. “I don’t feel like waiting.”

When Zoe leans close to my face, it only takes a second for her brother’s hesitation to fade. Together, they inhale over my throat in a single movement, my red flames swirling toward their faces—

And then, just as in sync, they both rear back with identical howls of pain.

Any thought of the barn fades in the face of something I had forgotten in all this. Something completely out of my control.

The angry awakening of my bloodmark.